The YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee will hold its next “Stand Against Injustice” event on May 15 from noon to 1 p.m. CDT. The virtual lunch and learn will feature Davidson County General Sessions Judge Ana Escobar, Nashville lawyer Charles Grant, former public defender Keeda Haynes and Emily Slotts with Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors. The event will explore what due process looks like in action and what happens when it is denied. Register online for the free event.

Three law students have filed a federal lawsuit asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to withdraw investigative letters sent to 20 large law firms and delete any information that it gathered from them. According to Reuters, the students said they had applied for jobs at several of the firms for this summer. The complaint argues that if firms hand over the requested data to the EEOC, sensitive information about the students — including their demographic and contact information, compensation and participation in DEI programs — will be disclosed. The ABA Journal has more. 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday said a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone should be dismissed for lack of standing. In a court filing, the DOJ argued that Idaho, Missouri and Kansas have no ties to Amarillo, Texas, where the lawsuit was filed, and that the states are free to file in their own districts, The Hill reports. The states did not file their own lawsuit but were instead granted the ability to intervene in a lawsuit filed by private parties in 2022. The states argue that some of the FDA’s actions to loosen access to mifepristone allowed the pills to flood across their borders, undermining their anti-abortion laws. Last year, the Supreme Court dismissed the original plaintiffs' suit, ruling that private parties had no legal standing to challenge access to the drug.

An official autopsy report has found that a Shelby County Jail inmate died earlier this year from a fentanyl overdose. Justin Segerson was found unresponsive at the jail on Jan. 30 and was taken to Methodist University Hospital, where he died the following day. According to The Daily Memphian, Segerson was one of four inmates to die within a week and one of 61 inmates to have died at the jail since 2019. A recent analysis by paper also revealed that Shelby County surpasses other large counties in Tennessee for inmate deaths. The jail is more overcrowded than it has been in at least five years, and, amid the crowding, more inmates are being placed on suicide watch, according to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

After almost nine hours of deliberation, the jury has returned a blanket "not guilty" verdict for three former police officers charged with killing Tyre Nichols. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith Jr. were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression under state law. The jury found all three not guilty on each count, The Commercial Appeal reports. By contrast, all three were convicted in federal court and face time in federal prison. Bean and Smith were found guilty of witness tampering and face up to 20 years in prison. Haley was found guilty on all counts and could serve a life sentence in prison. Two other former officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., pleaded guilty in the federal case to using excessive force and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

The TBA’s 2025 Convention will feature a joint CLE program from the TBA and the Tennessee Alliance for Black Lawyers (TABL) on June 12. “Realign: Justice, Well-Being & the Law — Addressing Bias for a Healthier Legal System” will explore how unconscious influences can lead to disparities in legal outcomes and offer practical strategies to promote fairness and equity. Using real-world examples and interactive discussion, the program is designed to equip judges, attorneys and advocates with tools to foster a more just and inclusive legal environment. The program will be presented by Nashville lawyer Sunny Eaton.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement partners, have arrested 84 undocumented immigrants in the Nashville area since Saturday, an ICE spokesperson said in a statement emailed to The Tennessean, the news outlet reports. ICE said some of those arrested have “significant criminal histories” and outstanding final orders of removal. The agency has not released the names of those taken into custody and noted that all individuals arrested were either pending immigration proceedings or removal. “Protecting the safety and security of our communities remains a top priority for ICE,” Lindsay Williams, ICE media operations unit chief, said in the statement.

The American Alliance for Equal Rights on April 12 filed a federal lawsuit against the American Bar Association (ABA) alleging that the ABA’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund is racially discriminatory and unlawfully excludes white students. The complaint challenges the program under a federal statute that guarantees all individuals the right to make and enforce contracts regardless of race, Bloomberg News reports. The suit also references past challenges to the ABA's judicial clerkship program and a temporarily suspended diversity requirement for law school accreditation. In 2024, the ABA loosened its requirements for the clerkship program. In March, the Trump administration directed the group to permanently eliminate the diversity standard or risk losing its accrediting authority.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed a new law eliminating a $350 fee property owners must pay to reclaim items seized by the government in civil asset forfeiture cases, WBIR reports. The Tennessee General Assembly had unanimously approved the measure — HB1229/SB481 — in April. Sponsored by Rep. Justin Lafferty, R-Knoxville, the law waives the fee as long as property owners go through a civil hearing to recover their property. “Tennesseans shouldn’t have to pay a fee just to reclaim their own property, especially when they were innocent bystanders, which is often the case in civil forfeiture,” Lafferty said of the law, which will take effect on July 1. The law will not affect processes associated with criminal asset forfeiture.

A Metro Nashville police whistleblower has been indicted on charges of stealing documents related to the Covenant School shooting, according to WPLN news. Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents arrested retired Lt. Garet Davidson following a yearlong investigation. Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk authorized the probe in June 2024 after the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) alleged Davidson may have leaked pages from the Covenant School assailant’s journal to the Tennessee Star news outlet. Davidson, who served in the department’s Office of Professional Accountability, also accused MNPD leadership of mishandling an internal investigation into an earlier leak and claimed he faced harassment and discrimination within the department. He was booked into the Davidson County jail on a $150,000 bond.